The Lemonheads are on the cusp of releasing a new LP, Love Chant, via Fire Records, their first in 19 years. Their last proper album was The Lemonheads, which dropped in the autumn of 2006, and in the years since, Evan Dando has drifted through covers albums (Varshons 1 and 2), low-key tours, and, most recently, the wistful single Fear Of Living. He’s also written a memoir (Rumours of My Demise, published October 7 via Faber), a fitting companion piece to a life and catalogue defined by both success and derailment. Now based in São Paulo, Dando recorded Love Chant with producer Apollo Nove, enlisting friends and longtime collaborators such as Juliana Hatfield, J Mascis, and John Felice.
Love Chant was first hinted at in May with the release of the 12” single Deep End / Sad Cinderella, the B-side being a cover of a Townes Van Zandt song, featuring Erin Rae’s wonderful backing vocals. The backbone of Love Chant consists of Dando (vocals, guitars, drums, bongos), Farley Glavin (bass, guitars, backing vocals), and John Kent (drums, backing vocals). Dando is credited with writing three of the eleven tracks himself, with the others co-written.
The album begins with 58 Second Song, a humorous deception from the off. Much like Ween’s 12 Golden Country Greats LP, which only has ten songs, 58 Seconds actually runs over three minutes. It’s a jangly, sunburned indie tune with a country lilt and lyrics that turn small confessions into riddles. Dando delivers lines like “And of all the things that are never said, nobody knows what they never meant.” The Lemonheads sound just as laidback and loveable as they did in their ’90s heyday.
Deep End is a slacker anthem par excellence, built on a lazy, perfect riff that feels like it’s about to collapse under its own weight but never quite does. It’s a perfect choice for a single: vintage Lemonheads through and through. Lines like “So you’re showing all the symptoms, coughing up a ghost” get a real lift from Juliana Hatfield’s backing vocals, while J Mascis lends his distinctive, fuzz-drenched guitar tone to the lead breaks—instantly recognisable to any fan. (Mascis previously played lead guitar on No Backbone from the 2006 self-titled album.) The song closes with a delicate acoustic outro.
Lead single In The Margin maintains the strong start to Love Chant. Evan says: “I wanted to have a riffy song, so I wrote riffs all over it. The body of the song was Marciana [Jones]’s. It’s like a full-on eighth-grade girl revenge song: ‘Stupidly I left the escape plans out so they could find my way.’” Despite its brief runtime of just over two minutes, In The Margin hooks you instantly. Evan’s voice still has great tone, and this song would easily sit comfortably on 1993’s Come On Feel The Lemonheads. Dando retains that ’90s gift of blending guitar-heavy alternative rock with enough pop sensibility to keep the melodies bouncing around in your head for days. The lead guitar lines veer in and out of key in the most perfect, Lemonheads way.
Wild Thing features a quintessentially grunge-like guitar intro before settling into more laid-back verses. Dando pushes his voice in the choruses to get that dynamic lift. Glavin plays the sloppy-sounding lead parts, which not only match Dando’s own style but also play into the anti–guitar hero approach favoured by many of the ’90s most influential musicians — Cobain, Moore, and Turner among them. Lyrics like “Oh, I’m the lucky one, who’s always sayin’ you were lucky to know me, baby / Oh, I’m the luckiest one, no one is luckier to know me than you,” spin like a quarrel caught mid-loop.
There are smaller, stranger moments too. Be In is talky and intimate, almost like a half-finished demo Dando couldn’t resist sharing. Cell Phone Blues brings back Hatfield and Erin for harmonies and John Felice for a ragged outro, with Dando half-admitting, half-laughing, “I haven’t written a song in one night for quite some time / All my life I’ve been worried I would die.”
Togetherness Is All I’m After, one of the strongest tracks on the second half of Love Chant, is co-written by John Strohm, another former Lemonhead, who last performed with the band on Car Button Cloth in 1996. This track directly references the passage of time: “Where did all the time go? What brought you to your knees? The strategy of time is you can speed it up, you can slow it.” From its chaotic, noisy intro to its classic indie-rock chorus, the band sound completely at home. It’s warm and engaging. When Dando sings, “The strategy of life is that it’s gone before you know it”, it hits as a universal truth—something we all come to understand sooner or later.
The title track Love Chant makes the most of minimal lyrics, with the phrase “Tell ’em the way I feel, oh yeah, I feel” repeated almost throughout. It’s free and easy, laid-back, and in no rush whatsoever. The Key Of Victory is the most stripped-back of the singles released—Dando accompanied by acoustic guitar and bongos for a softer sound. Written with David Ashby, the song has the distinction of having its vocals recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios.
After almost two decades away, Love Chant proves there’s still a place for The Lemonheads. Dando demonstrates his knack for writing great melodies, thoughtful lyrics, and surrounding himself with worthy collaborators. There remains something magnetic about him—a reminder of why the band earned such recognition in the 1990s. The Lemonheads could easily ride the tour circuit playing their beloved back catalogue for years, but, like their peers Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies, why shouldn’t they have a second act? Releasing new material and being rediscovered by a new audience seems only fitting.
For fans of: Dinosaur Jr., Pixies, The Breeders
‘Love Chant’ by The Lemonheads is released on 24th October on Fire Records.
Words by Ross Peacey
